The Great Balloon Sabotage

"How Long Do I Have to Grow Some Wings?"

           "I see them!" Sue exclaimed two hours later. She waved frantically and accidentally smacked a passing Antonio in the face. The others went to her and looked where she pointed. Sure enough, a large air ship twice the size of Clara's Poppy was heading their way.

          Clara breathed a sigh of relief, and from beside her Tony said, "Well, that was certainly an advent—"

          He was interrupted by another of Sue's scream. "Look!" She shrieked, pointing above the other balloon.

          Berty gagged as Clara yanked the goggles around his neck and peered through them towards the airship. She saw the shadowy figure, but this time it stayed near the front of the balloon. She adjusted the goggles, got a clearer picture...it was a bird! A giant bird, with huge black wings, a green forehead, and an orange beak. A beak that was currently tearing at the balloon of the airship while its wings slapped against the sides, making the tell-tale 'smack' sound Antonio had mentioned before. The airship turned midair so that the bird was completely exposed, so the others quickly saw it and gasped simultaneously.

          They watched wordlessly as the giant bird was shot at, but the bullets didn't seem to stop it. It dove on the airship three times, and somehow managed to puncture the government-grade balloon material. The airship went down within seconds, with an explosion of parachutes from everyone on board. Clara and the rest stared in horror as the giant bird flew up high and screeched loudly with its wings spread wide. Its tail was what resembled a billowing cape, which angled and steered the giant bird towards Clara's poppy while its orange beak screeched in fury. Sue promptly went into hysterics.

          "Plan Clara?" Tony asked in a rather hollow voice.

          "Right, well, uh..." Clara stared with terror as the bird flew closer. Fifty metres away it reared up and exposed its talons to tear at her balloon, and Clara's eyes came back into focus.

          "Oh no you don't!" She yanked on the controls and dropped the balloon's altitude briefly, so that the bird flew through empty air and shrieked.

          "Richard, contact the ground and tell them what happened and that we need backup, now!" She shouted, "Antonio, whatever I just did to the engine I want it fixed before the bird comes back around. Everyone else, go into the basket storage and get out the luggage net. Move!"

          They all hurried to obey. Clara's heart raced as she flung the balloon around to see the bird and avoided its every dive with flailing success. Twice a talon nearly sliced her balloon.

          When Tony came up next to her she muttered, "If that thing so much as touches us we're going down. My canvas is thin."

          "Better for speed, I know." Tony reached into his pocket and took out his watch, "I think I can fix that. But I'll need to—"

          Steam erupted from beneath the control panel as one of the breakers snapped. Tony bent and began working on it immediately.

          "What did you have in mind?" Clara called down to him as she dropped the balloon again and lurched it to the right.

          "If someone can get up to the top of the balloon, they can use this to protect it!" Tony replied, holding up his watch for a brief moment.

          "Your watch?!" Clara shouted.

          "It's a lot more than that, I promise. I've been working on it for months. But someone needs to go and— arrgh!" More steam erupted under his fingers, "This is going to take some work!"